It’s a room in which breast cancer patient Karen Pergande has spent an awful lot of time. The treatment or infusion room where she and other cancer patients receive their chemotherapy is big but only a few small pictures adorned the white walls. So Pergande, an accomplished artist, offered to paint a mural for the room as her way of saying “thank you” for the wonderful care she has received at the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“This is my way of saying thank you to everyone who has helped me so far,” says Pergande. “I just couldn’t see myself walking away at the end of the day without doing something.”

The mural is made up of four panels, each panel is 2½ feet by 4 feet. The landscape painting depicts a New England marsh with two great blue herons in the foreground. “I love painting landscapes, especially with birds,” says Pergande.

“It depicts a peaceful place, comfortable place,” says Sandra Watcke, nursing director for the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Some people are here eight to 10 hours a day, and to have something beautiful and serene to look at while you’re here is just wonderful.”

Pergande doesn’t use photographs to paint from. She comes up with an idea and then visualizes and meditates on it until she’s ready to paint. She chose the marsh scene because she wanted something colorful and serene so that patients and staff would find it soothing and healing. Once she formulated the idea in her head, she made sketches that were approved by the Health Center. Then it took her just five days – a very concentrated five days, according to Pergande – to finish the mural.

“This is my passion – coming from my heart and out through my hands,” says Pergande. “It’s very gratifying, and the best part is people’s response to my work and if they feel what I am trying to portray in my work.”

You can contact Pergande at pergandedesign@yahoo.com.

Follow the UConn Health Center on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.